Generally, this invention relates to a structural member connection or attachment system, and apparatus for and techniques of securely but removably attaching one structural member to another without welding or adhesive between the two members. Specifically, the invention focuses on methods (business and otherwise), structural member attachment apparatus and articles of manufacture relating to structural member construction and attachment for “sport cages” (also known as roll cages or safety cages) used to protect occupants of off-road vehicles from injury during accidents that may involve vehicle roll over. However, the article of manufacture, apparatus and methods (business and otherwise) related to bar connection technology as disclosed herein may also find application in fields other than off-road vehicles, such as any field where it is desired to securely fasten one bar to another without a weld or welding between the two, or adhesive, and without requiring drilling, riveting, or other structural modification by the installer.
Structural systems designed to protect occupants of off-road vehicles (such as, e.g., Jeeps™) from injury during roll-over have existed for many years. Roll cages, roll bars, sport cages and safety cages have long been used to protect occupants from injury during roll over by precluding contact of occupants with the driving surface and by enhancing the structural integrity of the vehicle. The various types of structurally-based protection typically consist of rigid metal bars attached to one another and/or the frame of the vehicle in such a fashion as to form a skeletal shell or framework surrounding the space that any riders or driver of the vehicle would occupy.
This skeletal framework may cover this occupant area to varying degrees, depending on the design. Often, factory roll bars (i.e., roll bars that are already attached to the vehicle upon purchase of a new vehicle) provide a minimum amount of framework protection to occupants and vehicle owners or users supplement that minimum protection by adding more structural members to the existing framework. By enhancing this framework, the off-roading experience can be more enjoyable and safer.
Typically, a user who wishes to enhance the protection offered by a factory frame must do so by either taking the entire vehicle to a shop that provides such service or by purchasing a kit from a roll-cage dealer and installing the enhancement kit (also known as a sport cage kit or a roll cage kit) him or herself. Installation of existing kits (other than the kit that is at least one embodiment of the present invention) by either a shop or at home by, for example, a vehicle owner, requires welding. This required welding poses several obstacles to many off-road vehicle enthusiasts who wish to have a factory roll protection system enhanced. Off-road vehicle owners who want to install a roll cage framework enhancement system must have welding tools and skill and, therefore, those who do not have such tools or skill must either incur the expense and time to gain them somehow or must have a shop perform the installation. Those who refuse to part from their off-road vehicles regardless of their lack of skill or tools necessary to perform adequate welds often perform low-quality welds during installation, thereby compromising the safety that would otherwise be afforded by a properly installed roll cage kit. However, usually an off-road vehicle enthusiast desiring a roll cage upgrade but lacking the necessary tools for and skill in welding will opt to resort to an often expensive shop installation. In doing so, the off-road vehicle enthusiast must part with their off-road vehicle for a period of time, forego any satisfaction they might have gained in performing their own installation, and incur an additional labor charge for the shop welding. The present invention overcomes the obstacles posed to users by and problems stemming from the welding requirement of the presently available upgrade, framework enhancement, roll cage or sport cage kits other than the inventive roll over protection kit as disclosed herein.
A further problem related to the “weld” design of other presently available framework enhancement (provided through a shop or with an enhancement kit) has to do with the permanent nature of the weld itself. If repositioning of one structural member with respect to another structural member to which it is welded is desired for whatever reason, such repositioning can only take place after breaking the weld, a lengthy and difficult (and sometimes nearly impossible) process. Thus, if the weld itself is incorrectly located, or it is desired to transfer the roll cage to another vehicle, or if a former off-road enthusiast has lost interest in off-road travel and wishes to remove the enhanced roll cage, such can only be done with great difficulty, if at all. The present invention overcomes the obstacles posed to users by and problems stemming from the permanent nature of the weld of other presently available upgrade, framework enhancement, roll cage, sport cage or safety cage designs.
Further, full sport cage kits and products available today that do not require welding for installation are too large for conventional carrier shipping (such as US Postal Service or United Parcel Service) and therefore may require that a customer drive his or her off-road vehicle to an installment shop, or that the customer somehow transport the large, bulky kit back to his or her home for installation.
Use of a structural member attachment apparatus as provided in the claims is simply unknown in the off-road vehicle sport cage field. Attachment apparatus used in the chain link fence industry, as shown in a figure referenced in the Information Disclosure Citation, discloses an apparatus that has only one part that is establishable externally of the receiving structural member and that therefore, does not allow the entire installation process to take place immediately in the vicinity of the attachment site on the receiving structural member, but instead requires the inconvenient step of slipping a part that surrounds the receiving structural member over an end of the receiving structural member and sliding that surrounding part to the desired attachment on the receiving structural member. A retention apparatus that may find application in power transmission and that is used to connect two shafts having collinear axes is also disclosed in a figure referenced in the Information Disclosure Citation, but, as but a few differences from the inventive technology disclosed herein, it does not have two compressive retention elements, nor does it have compressive generation elements on either side of each compressive retention element. Further, the installation of this attachment apparatus requires slipping the retention element over an end of the receiving structural element and sliding it to the desired attachment site on the receiving structural member. Installation of the inventive apparatus disclosed herein eliminates this inconvenient and time consuming step, a step which often, particularly in off-road sport cage applications, requires disassembly of other structural members.